Gang Attack on Haiti’s Largest Hospital Claims Lives of Journalists and Police

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (Le Floridien) – Haiti’s fragile hopes for stability were shattered once again on Tuesday morning when heavily armed members of the ‘Viv Ansanm’ (‘Living Together’) gang coalition opened fire on journalists and police officers during the planned reopening ceremony of the country’s largest hospital. The attack claimed the lives of at least two local journalists, Markenzy Nathoux and Jimmy Jean, as well as a police officer, leaving several others injured.


The State University of Haiti Hospital, commonly known as the General Hospital, had remained closed since February after being overrun by the same gang coalition. The hospital, a vital institution in a nation already crippled by a collapsing healthcare system, symbolized a flicker of hope amid unrelenting chaos. However, that hope was extinguished in a hail of bullets.


Videos circulating on social media captured the harrowing aftermath—two lifeless bodies laid out on the fllor, their clothes stained with blood. One of the men still wore a press credential around his neck, a haunting symbol of the price paid by those seeking to document Haiti’s grim reality.


In a chilling display of brazenness, Johnson André, infamously known as “Izo,” one of the gang coalition’s most prominent leaders, took to social media to claim responsibility for the attack. In his video address, he declared that the gang had not authorized the hospital’s reopening, drawing attention to the extent of their control over life in Haiti’s capital.

https://www.lefloridien.com/ga....ng-attack-on-haitis-